A New Beginning, a Different Ending
by GreatIceDragon
Summary: A new generation of riders begin their training, but before their training is complete, a shadow falls over Alagaesia. Can the Riders defeat this mysterious phantom? Will they be able to put aside their differences? Will the secrets they keep eventually tear them apart?
1. Chapter One

**Thanks again for all who submitted. Hope you enjoy the story (I do not own the Inheritance Cycle or any of the franchise attached to it.) Please excuse the horrible dialogue grammar. I should have paid attention in Language Arts!**

**Yuri's POV (1****st**** person)**

The day was unusually foggy, like a giant had breathed hot, steamy mist into the port. I didn't like it. It was far too oppressive and dreary. I remembered back to the last foggy day the docks had seen and I shuddered at the memory. The boy next to me looked around and observed. "It's… pretty cold out here." No duh.

"Not really. I was just… thinking." The boy nodded like this was a satisfactory answer. As he turned away, presumably bored with my _amazing_ conversation skills, I blurted out a question. "What's your name?" He smiled and said "Mercury. What's yours?"

I smiled back and replied "Yuri. Yuri Reams." He turned away again, and this time I didn't stop him. Everyone's nerves were on edge. Some people chattered incessantly to deal with nerves, like I did, while some became as talkative as a rock. Today was the day we started our training as riders. Several people were gathered on the dock, waiting for someone to arrive, to whisk us away to somewhere magical. One of the others started throwing rocks at some seagulls to amuse himself. Unexpectedly, a large, iridescent blue shape appeared on the skyline.

"Look!" someone shouted, "It's Saphira!" We all craned our heads to see her descending form. Not far behind her was either impossibly large boat or a lot of very large boats. Saphira landed gracefully and surveyed us. Not one person moved. We all heard a voice rumble "_Welcome, little ones. You have a long journey ahead of you. Some of the hatchlings can fly, others cannot. I brought these boats for this reason. The journey will not seem long, but for every mile you think we travel, we are one hundred miles further from Alagaesia_."

Everyone, including the dragons, looked awed. Once we were on the boats, I began to observe the other riders. There were a lot of elves this year, as far as I could tell. A few humans and… was that an urgal over there? Cool! Urgal riders were very rare, even rarer than dwarf riders. I walked over to my dragon, Cinero, and asked him a question. "_Did you notice the urgal rider_?"

"_Yes. Do try and be polite, Yuri. This would not be a good time to stick your foot in your mouth. The last thing we want to do on a first day is to offend a fellow rider_." I made a pouty face and said "_Yeesh, Cinero, I know these things, you don't have to play the part of guardian angel. I know what I'm doing._"

**Hith's POV (1****st**** person)**

Everyone was staring at me. Nothing new there. What mystified me was how they thought I couldn't see them. "Hey!" I shouted at a human boy who was staring at me, "Keep your eyes to yourself!" He looked away, embarrassed. For a moment, I felt bad for being so harsh on him. But then I told myself that he had deserved. He was staring at me like I was an animal, and I had to show everyone that if they messed with me, they were gonna pay.

**I feel horrible for not putting this chapter up sooner. And now I can't update in a while because I'll be at my summer camp in Tennessee for six weeks. I appreciate all reviews, and here are special thanks to all the people who submitted riders!**

**armegddon**

**Betusta Morla**

**Ocadioan (for both riders)**

**ShadeDarkHeart**

**Daughter of King Orrin**

**Soren0666**

**SidTheSeer**

**Du Hljodhr Sundavar**

**awesomosityrox**

**SophieForeverCharmed**

**ShiningIDOL**

**Joda-Eragonsson**

**slytheringirl4life**

**You guys are the best! Please don't hate me for procrastinating so long. Feel free to PM me what you think your characters would do in a certain situation. HHFN (Huzzah-Huzzah for now!**

**-GreatIceDragon!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Please don't hate me for not reviewing! I feel really bad! (Also, Please read and review my half story with awesomosityrox about a warrior [cat] that falls in love with a kittypet.)**

**Hith's POV**

I spent most of the trip sleeping and trying to come up with names for my dragon, all of which failed. Sometimes, when I felt especially desperate, I would think random words to her in hope that she would like them. This never works, and I'm glad so. I don't really want a dragon named spoon. After about three days, we arrived at land. It was a large island covered in thick forests and lush scenery. And a giant mountain that seemed totally out of place. We all followed Saphira to said mountain and stopped at the dragon-sized entrance, which I had somehow missed. "_Little ones." _rumbled Saphira "_This mountain is home to a large system of caves where you and your dragons will live until your training is complete. There can be up to two dragons and riders in each cave." _She turned to look at the entrance. "_Your lessons will begin in two days. Use that time to get acquainted with your fellow riders." _ With that she took off, a bit over-dramatically, I daresay. Well, she is a dragon, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised.

Upon entering, I picked the the first cave I looked at. I might as well not be picky on who I wasn't going to like. When I walked in, there was a black haired girl bouncing up and down on one of the beds. She didn't seem to notice me until I oh-so-subtly coughed to get her attention. She turned mid-jump and landed on the floor, then quickly got up and brushed herself off. "Hi!" she chirped, "I'm Yuri. What's your name? Where are you from? What's your dragon's name? What color is he/she? Do you-" I cut her off mid question.

"Hi." I said somewhat awkwardly, "My name's Hith. Is it okay if I live here?" Let it be noted that I don't usually ask people's permission for anything. I just didn't want to make myself look like an ass before people even knew me. Yuri beamed and nodded, apparently too excited with the prospect of a roommate to speak. She scampered off to unpack some more while I examined the cave. It wasn't much. Just a large cave with two beds and a window. I dreaded this evening, because I would have socialize and pretend to like a lot of people. Cheers.

**Mercury's POV **

The evening came much too quickly. Before I knew it, I was looking at faces and hearing names that I would have to memorize eventually. The few people I remembered were Hith, the urgal, Yuri, because I met her before, and Abby Hallows, because she was the youngest. I was living with an elf named Soren. He seemed nice... actually he seemed decent at the best. My mother told me not to trust anyone with a tattoo, which he seemed eager to show off. I would have to be careful around him. No reason to be too assuming on first meeting. That night, I heard Soren climb out the window and heard his dragon come flying by. I guess he was going flying. I didn't really see the purpose of that, seeing as he could just do that in the daylight. Whatever. I went back to sleep with out any thought on the matter.

**Soren's POV**

There's nothing I like better than flying on a clear night under the moon. Edoc'sil would fly as fast as he could, which was _very_ fast, and I would try any and every risky stunt I could think of. Hey, the adrenaline rush was great, and I got to spend time with my dragon. _"Soren, there is a dragon following us."_ rumbled Edoc'sil I looked behind us, and sure enough, there was another dragon. I couldn't tell what color it was, but I saw that it had abnormally large wings. It zoomed ahead of us then looked back challengingly. "Right," I muttered "Edoc'sil, let's show these posers what speed means."


	3. Chapter 3

**I know, I know, I'm a horrible person for never updating. I have no excuses. Just don't try and kill me, please. Enjoy.**

The dragons danced a terrible, firey dance that night. When one would pull ahead, the other would go further ahead. Soon, they were streaks of colered light in the sky , and nothing more. As the sun started to rise, he unknown dragon reeled, turned, and flew quickly back to the mountain. Shade looked back in amazement. He had never met a dragon that was as fast as Edoc'sil. This was definityly worth looking into.

Before the riders knew it, the tow days had passed and training had begun. The riders were to have all of their classes together, and they were to first meet in a large field adjacent to the mountain. A tall, beautiful, elf-woman was waiting. "Hello," she said in a soft, musical voice, "my name is Aurelia Leonis, but you may call me Aurelia. I will be your weapons instuctor. Do any of you have any past experience with weapons?" About ¾ of the class raised their hands. The other fourth just looked awkward.

Aurelia simply smiled and said "Please forget any and everything you thnink you know about fighting. I am not here to make you a swordplay prodigy or a knife throwing expert. I am here to make sure that you can get in a fight and win. It will be hard, no doubt about it. Now, please jog round the field three times." After much huffing and puffing, Aurelia made them pair up and try hand to hand fighting.

"Remember,"she said "there are almost never rules in open battles. For training purposes, there will be, but remember that if you ever get into a fight." The undisputed master of hand fighting was Hith. Many a boy was flipped on his ass that day. Weapons training took about half the day, and by the end, everyone was exhausted. They met in the main hall (they had ceased to think of them as caves) and had an enormous lunch. Aurelia announced that they would be meeting Jax at 8:00 in the forest that night for their next class. Until then, they were free to do as they wished.

Hith stumbled sleepily to her room. She collapsed on her bed and immdediatly fell asleep. Most of the riders did the exact same thing. But not Soren. He wanted to find out who the mysterious dragon and rider were. After friutlessly trying wandering the hallway for a couple minutes, Soren had an idea. "_Edoc'sil, can you find out among the dragons who the fastest one is? Maybe that will be ethe one." _Soren could feel Edoc'sil snort in his mind. "_**That **__will work. 'Exucse me, are you the dragon who raced us in the dead of night a couple nights ago? No, well, okay then. Next dragon!' That will make them think I'm crazy."_

_ "Oh yeah," _Soren challenged, "_If I go around knocking on the girls' rooms, they're going to think I'm a perv!" _

"_You have a point."_

"_I know."_

That night, the riders gathered at the largest oak tree and waited. And waited. And waited some more. "This is pointless," complained a rider named Jodase "the teacher obviously forgot to come to class." The group shifted uneasily. Jodase had voiced what they were thinking. What kind of teacher forgot his own class?

"Maybe his class forgot to look for him." Suddenly, a tall man with shoulder length brown hair and a black cloak appeared among them. "I am Jax, teacher of unseen movement and tracking skills. I used to be a Ranger. Now I'm a Ranger with a dragon. I was there the entire time, and not one of you noticed me. You obviously have a lot to learn. Now, first I am going to talk about choosing the right attire. Can anyone tell me what color my cloak is?

Hith raised her hand and said bluntly "It's black." Jax smiled ironically and answered "No." Not one hand went up. Slowly, tentativly, Abby raised her hand and asked "Is it dark green?"

Jax nodded and said "Yes, it's green. Most people will assume it's black because it's so dark, but dark green is far better. Black is too solid a color, green will escape people's attentions. Now, you also need to wear bark clothing, again, green is best. One important skill that you need to know is how to move without being heard. This is hard, especially for the less graceful riders." He breifly raised an eyebrow at Yuri and continued talking "I will turn my back, and you will try to sneak past me. Go." Every single one of them failed. There was always a leaf, or a stick, or in Yuri's case, a squirrel that jumped on her head and caused her to scream bloody murder and fall down.

Every single rider went straight to bed that night, including Soren. They all dreaded the next day of classes.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry for the long hiatus. I had some awful writer's block, but thanks to Ocadion, I'm better now. And I just want to say that my updating schedule is not, nor will it ever be, regular. Just take the updates as they come and I'll try to make them good. **

It was a chore for the riders to wake up the next morning. After breakfast, the Riders stumbled groggily down to the weapons field, where Aurelia made them practice hand to hand fighting again. This class was less physically challgening than the last one, so the riders had somethin to be thankful for. After class, Aurelia watched them carefully. "Young riders, you will not have class with Jax every night. He said every other night twould suffice. Instaed, this afternoon, you will learn magic from Thrain Thronsson."

Thrain himself proved to be...interesting. He was in all respects, a typical dwarf, but that in itself is what made him so...interesting. When the students were all seated (on the floor, as there were no desks), Thrain greeted them in typical dwarven fashion. "Hello, I'm Thain, I know you're all students, and I don't care to learn your names right now. Today we'll be compiling a list of all the Words you collectively know. Then I'll know what to go over."

Mercury was very uncomftorble. Magic really wasn't his thing. He preferred to use his wits and intellegence rather than words than controlled the world around him. The rest of the class embraced it. How well they embraced it, however, remained to be seen. "Mr. Thain, am I allowed to strike dramatic poses when casting a spell?" Three guesses as to who that was. Without looking, Mercury knew it has been Yuri. That girl was very strange, but she seemed to have her heart in the right place. The same could not be said for Soren, however. Tension had been building between them ever since they had met. It started with little things, like Mercury getting annoyed when Soren was messy, Soren getting irritated when Mercury was in an inventive mood, things like that. But Soren had continued sneaking out every night, and was not very quiet when returning. Mercury, getting less and less sleep, finally confronted him about it. And Soren had laughed in his face. It wasn't full out war yet, but Mercury didn't know what else their fate would be.

_**XxXxXxXxXx**_

__ Emera was troubled. Not by the fact that she was sitting cross legged in the crown of a rather large tree, but by the fact they hadn't seen Eragon once since they had arrived. She hadn't really expected to be taught by him until the group was much larger and powerful, but not to make an appearance? Something was up.

_**XxXxXxXxXx**_

_Aurelia hurried down a long corridor, glancing behind her regurally, to see if she was being followed. She wasn't. She muttered a passoword under her breath and entered the room. A thin, frail-looking man laid in the center of the bed. His eyes were closed, and he seemed to be at peace. Aurelia nodded. His condition was no worse than before. None of the students could find out, for if the did, they might lose hope. And they were going to need as much of it as possible..._

**Hey guys, this is GreatIceDragon (I mean, who else could it be?), I'm so sorry for the long wait, but, like I said, awful writer's block. This chapter is really short because I'm really stuck for ideas. Please, review, because it gives me hope! Please, give me suggestions. Not about an over riding plot, because I've got one, but small, character plots. Adios!**

**P.S- awesomosityrox: you, sir, are a ray of sunshine**


	5. Chapter 5

**Look guys, in case you haven't noticed, I haven't updated in a while. I feel pretty bad about that, so I've decided to put this story on hiatus. I need some time to think things (Like the plot) through, and I don't want to have you under any illusions that I'll update soon. I also want some time to focus on my other stories. I'm sorry. The story may continue in a couple months.**


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